Social media giant Facebook is secretly working on a smartwatch and plans to start selling it from next year, according to a report.
The Android-based smartwatch prepared by Facebook will include messaging, health and fitness functions.
According to The Verge, it is unclear whether Facebook intends to run Google’s Wear Os with the smartwatch.
Aside from the upcoming smartwatch, Facebook is also working on developing its own operating system for hardware devices, and future iterations of the wearable may be able to run that software instead.
The smartwatch will become part of Facebook’s growing Oculus virtual reality headsets and portal video chat devices as part of the growing social network hardware ecosystem.
The company is also working on Ray-Ban branded glasses, which are expected to launch later this year, and a separate augmented reality research initiative called Project Aria, which is part of the company’s broader AR research it is on has been working for some time now.
The social networking company employs more than 6,000 people who work on various augmented and virtual reality projects as well as within the framework of existing hardware departments such as Oculus and Portal as well as on experimental initiatives in the Facebook Reality Labs area.
The Verge also reported that Facebook took over the neural interface startup CTRL-Labs in 2019. The company has experience building wireless input mechanisms, including devices that can transmit electrical signals from the brain to computing devices without the need for traditional touchscreen or physical keystrokes.
